The 2016 Eater Awards or How To Blow A Pre-Holiday Diet

The recent 2016 Eater Awards was both a foodie’s sweet dream and dieter’s beautiful nightmare. The prestigious event honored the top restaurants, bars, and industry players in the food world and brought them all to Union Faire in NYC to wreak havoc on my pre-holiday diet goals ????. The event was worth every moment of my 6 AM spin class the next morning.

So, let’s start with the food. It was all delicious. I sampled stuffed myself full of sweet cornbreads, seafood bites, pork salads and snickerdoodle cookies.

I got to chat briefly with the ladies from Sister Pie – a bakery in Detroit. Their treats were sweet without being overwhelming which was a nice surprise. Actually, it might have been too nice since I happily ate four cookies without a single regret.

Of course, good food is only enhanced by fabulous people. Celebrity chef Carla Hall was honored with the Eater Icon award at the event. She is absolutely one of my favorite chefs and took the time to chat with everyone who came up to her.

Mixologist Moses Laboy crafted signature Ketel One Vodka cocktails to pair with the Award’s food options. And, New York Yankee pitcher Dellin Betances jumped behind the bar to get in on the cocktail action.

Laboy’s Perfection cocktail was one of the best drinks of the evening.

He also did some cocktail demonstrations for attendees and his speakeasy style drink was pretty tasty as well. I took a video of him crafting the specialty smokey drink, which was fun to watch.

Laboy totally recommends adventurous at-home mixologist try smoking some cocktails to impress friends. He’s the real deal when it comes to mixology so he actually suggested going to a lumber shop and getting a 10- foot piece of Maplewood to smoke. You can also check out this Youtube how-to that might be a little simpler for beginners.

After I finished my cocktail I snagged a few more cookies – seriously, they’re that good – and headed home stuffed and happy. At the gym the next morning, all I could do was smile as I thought back to all the goodness I’d enjoyed the night before and look forward to doing it again next year.